Bus ML 4201 Chapter 17 Non Decision Making Thinking Shortcuts Reasoned decision making sequence of behaviors is Think Feel Act When the consumer is engaged in the full DM process s he actively participates in each of the three stages using relatively objective and controlled situation specific analyses Many models shows that people think and feel before they act Motivation for Mental Shortcuts The theory of information processing parsimony suggests that people tend to be lazy with their mental efforts This path of least resistance model is based on the premise that thinking and evaluating are mentally burdensome and therefore they are minimized on many but not all occasions Shortcut Category 1 Feeling WITHOUT Thinking o Feel Act o Three major examples of this thinking shortcut Attitudes Automated feelings because they are predispositions to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to an object issue or person An attitude is a shortcut because it eliminates the need to calculate expected value They are also insensitive though which can Emotions People who let their primary feelings direct large portions of their overt behavior They are non verbal hard to suppress and not forward thinking But they can be punished and deteriorate an individual s schedule of reinforcement Psychological Reactance Reactance refers to the motivational state of a person who perceives that his her freedom of choice has been threatened Two major forms Reverse psychology People do things when you tell them not too and Boomerang effect A person will become increasingly less interested in force alternatives or behaviors For a reactance effect to occur two conditions must be met 1 There must be a prior expectation of freedom regarding to the choice of behavior 2 The perceived loss of freedom must relate to an issue or behavior that has some consequence of importance to the individual Shortcut Category 2 Acting with Minimal Thinking o Think Feel Act o Two major forms 1 Scripted behaviors and 2 Impulsive behaviors Scripted Behaviors scripts represent prescribed behavior patterns that are enacted on cue Individuals learn and then over learn the behaviors associated with particular cues e g how to attract attention from others Many behaviors are easily over learned like driving the same route to and from work each day Formation of scripts Scripts are formed as careful evaluations and then begin to lose detail and become summarized consolidated and automated over time and with repetition Over time as the summary label is repeatedly activated the original evaluation becomes over learned through practice and therefore strongly entrenched as a behavioral cue Examples of scripts At a restaurant 1 Look for a hostess 2 sit at a table 3 observe menu 4 order food 5 wait 6 eat 7 pay check Types of scripts o Causal script We use to identify cause effect relationships Ex believing automatically that having a lot of money would make you happy o Role script Associate general environmental cues to certain general over learned behaviors Ex Housewife may purchase an expensive name rand rather than an inexpensive but virtually generic brand because she includes the script Buy a good brand for the family in her wife mother role Impulsive Behaviors One enacted without the benefit of careful problem definition or evaluation Spur of the moment decisions Not carefully thought out or unplanned Shortcut Category 3 Acting without Thinking Act Habit will be defined as an established behavior pattern that has been fully automated Ex Smoking eating three times a day brushing teeth usin sarcastic humor Routine Temporal program i e timetable for habits Ex Eating at 8 00 am noon and 6 00 pm everyday and brushing your teeth after every meal working out at the gym every Monday and Wednesday etc Scripted behavior A person who smokes cigarettes when s he is feeling nervous Scripted behavior cue feeling nervous response smoking a cigarette Adults even have schedules of reinforcement that are often subtle and indirect Consequences of Habits They are performed without awareness Law of diminishing returns